Queens Shooter Says Devil Helped Him

Matthew Colletta, the Queens man accused of shooting at cars and pedestrians, killing one and injuring four others last Friday, said he got his gun from Lucifer. Remember, Colletta had said that he shot at red cars because he thought the Bloods were after him. Yesterday, he was arraigned by the Queens DA's in the Bellevue prison ward, where he has been undergoing mental evaluations. When Colletta was questioned by the police, he apparently gave them rambling, conflicting accounts of what had happened. From the NY Times:

Prosecutors said Mr. Colletta described to police officers “red cars closing in” during the spree, said Marcus Franklin, a reporter for The Associated Press who was selected to represent fellow reporters at the arraignment. When arrested, Mr. Colletta gave police investigators several versions of the events that seemed contradictory and fantastical at times, prosecutors said yesterday.

In one version, Mr. Colletta denied involvement in the spree, telling police that he left his car in the valet parking lot of a strip club and that “someone must have put the gun there; that’s not mine.” But he also told police investigators he had been temporarily living in his car and that he found the gun “in a container,” prosecutors said.

The police have said that Mr. Colletta spent last week snorting cocaine and sleeping in his car, a Cadillac. Prosecutors said that Mr. Colletta possessed some cocaine and five bags of angel dust, and that he said he had “borrowed the gun from Lucifer.”

Colletta's lawyer said he would enter a plea of not guilty for his client. Lawyer Todd Greenberg, who had defended him on other drug possession charges, said, “Matthew Colletta is an extremely sick young man. We are preparing a mental disease defense.”